Pages

16 February 2010

Antibiotics and farming — CBS follow-up video

Constant readers, CBS News has posted some follow-up video to its two-part series last week on antibiotics in agriculture. It features Dr. David Kessler, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (which under its current leadership has vowed to re-examine farm-antibiotic use), and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation.

They talk about the protests CBS has received for airing the package, the concerns public health authorities have over the lack of data on the amounts and types of antibiotics used, and much more. I especially love Schlosser's comment: "I'm a meat-eater." It's important, I think, to say that being critical of antibiotic use does not mean being opposed to animal agriculture, or wanting to see farms shut down. It means being concerned for the health of farm animals, farm families, and everyone affected by growing antibiotic resistance — which is, you know, everyone.

No comments:

profile

Maryn McKenna is an award-winning journalist and author and a recovering newspaper reporter. She writes about public health, medicine and food policy for national magazines and medical journals, and finds emerging diseases strangely exciting.

SUPERBUG the book

SUPERBUG has been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, NPR's Science Friday, CBC's The Current and other radio and TV as well as numerous print and online publications. Find it at Superbugthebook.com.